Shirking our responsibility to protect

Shirking our responsibility to protect

Monday 18 April 2011 19.05 EDT
First published on Monday 18 April 2011 19.05 EDT

When, in the context of their commitment to protect civilians from the bloodbaths and massacres perpetrated by despotic and brutal regimes (Cluster munitions fired by Tripoli regime – witnesses, 16 April), will the UK and the US honour their pledge to protect the 3,400 defenceless Iranian exiles who live in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, the desert town that has been their home for over a decade? These are officially "protected persons" under the fourth Geneva convention, and the UK and the US have clear obligations in international law towards them. Far greater, actually, than their responsibilities to the people of Libya, yet they remain silent, while these innocent men and women, under siege for the last two years, are being murdered, and all survivors now threatened with deportation to torture and death in Iran, a regime infamous for its horrific treatment of its critics and protesters.

Their silence and refusal to take action could lead to their prosecution at the ICC for violating international humanitarian law, yet the UK press has so far not adequately covered these ongoing atrocities.

For two decades UN peacekeepers have watched in silence as the Saharawi people have faced horrific forms of torture. During the current renewal of the mission, the security council has the opportunity to condemn France's indefensible position in the strongest terms, monitor abuse and take swift, decisive action to resolve this conflict.

• If the foreign secretary does not heed the UN security council's arms embargo on Libya (Arab world and west unite to back rebels, 14 April), there's a real risk that UK tax payers' pounds could end up putting guns into the hands of children. The supply of small arms could not only provide the Libyan people with the means to defend the civilian population, as William Hague argues, but increase the easy use of arms by children and, therefore, the use of children as combatants.

The foreign secretary must be mindful not to aggravate the use of child soldiers by supplying arms; and put measures in place to prevent arms reaching the estimated 300,000 child soldiers already engaged in conflict around the world. We urge Mr Hague to signal the UK's commitment to this issue by renewing the previous (Labour) government's strategy on children affected by armed conflict.